


reimagining (a life with you)

by letsgetalittleseethrough



Category: Sanditon (TV 2019)
Genre: F/M, asexual!Sidney, navigating married life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-25
Updated: 2020-08-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:28:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26111137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/letsgetalittleseethrough/pseuds/letsgetalittleseethrough
Summary: Their wedding night didn’t go as she’d expected.
Relationships: Charlotte Heywood/Sidney Parker
Comments: 14
Kudos: 18





	reimagining (a life with you)

**Author's Note:**

> I know a lot of you may be thinking, "Sidney Parker, asexual? Never!" 
> 
> Well... let's see if I can make it convincing, shall we? :))

Charlotte Heywood married Sidney Parker on a sunny autumn day in September. Both had been filled with wedding-morning’s nerves that had dissolved into pure happiness once they saw each other at the altar. 

Or so Charlotte thought. She had barely spent any time with Sidney the entire day, and now they were dancing together, and she could see plain as anything that something was Not Right. 

And yet, asking him what was wrong seemed like a terrifying solution - what if he suddenly said that he regretted promising to spend the rest of his life with her, that this whole thing was one huge mistake? So she swallowed down the fear that clung to her like the material of her dress, held him a little tighter, and smiled. 

They set off at around 7pm for London, a pit-stop for their honeymoon destination of Italy. 

Beside her in the carriage, her new husband was practically vibrating with nerves. Charlotte did what she thought would help, which was to take his hand and whisper, “Soon it will be just us…” - the wrong decision, for Sidney paled alarmingly. 

They did not speak for the rest of the journey. Checking into the hotel was too an almost silent affair, save for speaking when speaking was necessary. 

Sidney handed her the room key. “You go up without me. I’ll…” 

He looked so ill that she couldn’t help but pity him. Touching his arm, and watching as his heart seemed to leap out of his chest in her doing so, she walked away, wondering what the night would bring. 

Wedding-day-morning Charlotte had never planned for this. Wedding-day-morning Charlotte, in fact, was secretly very much looking forward to her wedding night, having read enough illicit books as to be clued in to what was going to occur. 

It took Sidney an hour to follow her to their room. He took one look at the bed, which she had arranged herself half-innocently and half-wickedly on, forced a smile, and, sweating, promptly dropped it in favour of a look of terror. 

“Sidney-” 

“Charlotte,” he said, louder than her, and then looked at the richly patterned carpet as he said, “I’m afraid I’m not the man you expected to marry.” 

A million theories popped into her head: he had led a double life, and was married to another woman - or he owed debts, like Otis Molyneux, or already had a child with one of the women at the bordello they visited in their search for Georgiana, or- 

Or the worst of all, the same worry that had struck her like a cobra as they danced: he did not love her after all. 

“Whatever it is, I’ll understand,” she told him in a traitorously trembling voice. 

And then he began to speak, and she realised she had, in fact, lied. 

  
  
  



End file.
